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Somebody, and I don’t know who, once said, “there are no bad ideas, just great ideas that went horribly wrong.”

Take for example fried pickle and ranch dressing flavored potato chips or funeral home scented room spray or fried chicken and waffle scented candles. Then there’s Boudicca Wode Paint perfume that comes in a “graffiti spray paint can” and is cobalt blue so when you spray it you and your clothing are covered in, well, cobalt blue perfume which, supposedly, disappears after a while but in the meantime has you looking like a Jason Pollock gone terribly wrong.

OK so maybe none of these really were great ideas that went horribly wrong — maybe they were just horribly bad ideas to start with — but you get my drift.

But the all-time classic, tops-the-list-of-ideas that took a wrong turn down a dark and winding tunnel with no light at the end are all things pumpkin spice.

Ever since Starbucks introduced the pumpkin spice latte in 2003 people have gone bat dung crazy over anything and everything “pumpkin spice.” In fact, Forbes estimated that by 2015 the “pumpkin spice economy” — that is all pumpkin spice products including lattes, yogurts, craft beers, candles, etc. — was $500 million and growing. Really? Yes, really.

This begs several questions the first of which is whose idea was it to put pumpkin puree in coffee? I mean seriously that just sounds like, well, a bad idea from the get go but someone did and folks are apparently gaga over it. I get adding the spices — cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice — to coffee but pumpkin puree? Yuck. Even blended with condensed milk and sugar…pumpkin puree in coffee? Blech.

So, OK to each her own but with the advent of the pumpkin spice latte came a whole avalanche of mutant “me too” pumpkin spice products.

For those whose seasonal cold or flu isn’t quite seasonal enough, there are menthol pumpkin spice cough drops. Like pumpkin spice isn’t bad enough you gotta add menthol? Riiiiight. I hear they work but mostly because after you consume one you are so busy vomiting you don’t have time to cough. Hey, whatever works.

Also appearing on shelves in grocery stores are pumpkin spice cream cheese and pumpkin spice butter because obviously one seasonal product — say pumpkin spice bagels, bread or (Heaven help us) English muffins — must be slathered with another to really “get your fall on.”

Not a cream cheese or butter fan? Don’t despair your bread can still bring you the flavor of the season just put a bit of pumpkin spice goat cheese or pumpkin spice gouda on it and viola! you’ve got yourself a terrible idea on toast. The folks who make the goat cheese recommend trying it with a craft beer and the makers of gouda suggest a Malbec or Chardonnay pairing. They also say it makes a fabulous seasonal mac-n-cheese. OK I’m with them 100 percent on one thing: I’d need a lot of alcohol to choke down pumpkin spice mac-n-cheese. Just sayin’.

And just when you thought the candy aisle would be a safe refuge from pumpkin spice — cheep! There are pumpkin spice late Peeps. Yeah I’m talkin’ about those little marshmallow sugar-encrusted bird carcasses that should only have to been seen once a year in a basket with fake green grass and chocolate bunnies. But nooooooo, Peeps just couldn’t stay in their designated season they had to go trespassing all over fall.

Perhaps the worst in the entire lot of all (in)edible things pumpkin spice are pumpkin spice kale chips. Need I say more? I think not.

And so as to not leave out our four-legged furry friends there are pumpkin spice dental chews for dogs and a powdered instant pumpkin spice latte mix for cats and dogs. Simply add water to the “nourishing blend of dry goats milk, pumpkin and hint of cinnamon” and you’ll have something even feral cats will run from.

Last in the hit parade of dumpster-worthy pumpkin spice products is pumpkin spice scoopable cat litter. Yes, you read that right. The pitch for the product is: “You experience this flavor in your latte, smell the fragrance in your candles and air fresheners, and you can moisturize your skin with the scent of pumpkin spice so why not enjoy this fragrance when you clean out your fur baby’s litter box?”